It happened today. I’ve felt it coming for some time – even thought about why it may be happening. But there I sat on the edge of my couch. I’d carefully planned my lunch break (I was working from home) to coincide with the mid-day Versus presentation of the end of Stage 5 of the Tour de France. It was another flat stage – so all down to the sprinters. The last few kilometers showed the normal dominance of the HTC Columbia lead out train (more on that choo-choo later) But wait – Garmin snuck in there. Things were getting interesting. It was coming down to the line… could go any way…

That is when it happend. That is when I realized that I was not cheering on Tyler Farrar, hoping he could overcome his fractured wrist and take the win. I wasn’t hoping for Thor Hushovd to win (as he should, if for no other reason than his name is Thor) What was I hoping to see? I wanted to see anything but Mark Cavendish riding across the line with his arms raised. For a large number of reasons, I found myself rooting against someone rather than rooting for someone.

How the hell did that happen?

My wife thinks it is because he always wins. That may be true. I’ve definitely got an “always cheer for the underdog” type of mentality. It is boring to look at the elevation profile for a stage and know “Yup – that’ll be Cav fumbling with his green sunglasses again…” (by the way – can anyone find video of that online?)

Is it because I’m completely sick of hearing the term “Lead Out Train”? Yea – that might just be it. Seriously need to call it something different. It is almost as infuriating as the “Manx Missle” comments. Makes me want to form my fingers into a gun and shoot them all in the head.

Mostly, I have to be honest and say it is unfair of me. Sure, the guy is cocky, but all those stage wins gives a person at least some justification for being cocky. I tried to be really mad at him for the Tour de Suise crash – but I’m still not sure I objectively think he was actually in the wrong there. From now on maybe I’ll just salute him on every win the way he saluted folks…